She's Got You High
by nikkiRA
Summary: Oneshot, RoryAmy/ When she asks Rory to dress up as the Doctor, he does it, because it makes her happy and she stops hitting him and yelling at him and he likes being the hero in her fairytales.


_She's got you high and you don't even know yet_  
_ She's got you high and you don't even know yet_  
_ It's the search for the time before it leaves without you_  
_ Have you lost your mind or has she taken all of yours too?_

_- _Mumm-Ra, She's Got You High_  
_

The first thing he thinks when he meets Amelia Pond is _oh bugger, I'll never get her. _

He's seven and likes to think he seems older whenever he says _bugger, _although he isn't allowed to say it in front of his parents. But his father says it a lot and he thinks his father is awfully old, and he wants to be just like his father when he grows up. So he says bugger whenever he's around other people but keeps his mouth shut around his parents.

Amelia Pond is terribly beautiful, but she has a scowl on her face. Her aunt is introducing them with a forced smile that says this little girl is too much to handle.

"Amelia, this is Rory Williams."

Amelia crosses her arms. "There's a crack in my wall."

Sharon rolls her eyes. "Will you please shush about that crack? It's nothing, Amelia."

Amelia ignores her. "Will you fix it?"

Rory doesn't know how to fix anything. But he finds himself nodding.

Later, and much to Sharon's disapproval, he finds himself in Amelia Pond's room, staring at the large crack. He paces up and down it. He tries to prod it, but he's too afraid to touch it (_baby, don't be afraid of a _crack!) and after a while he gives up.

Amelia stands there disappointed.

She talks to him the next day, anyway.

* * *

"His name was The Doctor."

"The doctor? That's not a real name."

Amelia whacks him in the arm. He pretends it doesn't hurt. "It is so a real name!"

"No it isn't! A real name is Amelia or Rory or Betsy-"

_"Betsy?"_

"Not the doctor."

Amelia pouts, something she has down to an art. "Well, it was his name. And if you don't believe me then you can leave. No one ever believes me anyway."

Rory doesn't want to leave. He quite likes hanging around Amelia, even though she is rather bossy and won't talk about anything except the crack and this strange doctor fellow.

"I'm sorry Amelia. Tell me more about him, please."

She debates, but her desire to talk about the Doctor overpowers her irritation at Rory.

"Well, he showed up in a blue box. He crushed my shed and he was wet."

"Why was he wet?"

"The swimming pool."

"How big was the box?"

"Reeeeeeally big. Now stop interrupting."

Thus begins the legacy of the Raggedy Doctor. Rory is an excellent listener and Amelia is an excellent story-teller. When she asks Rory to dress up as the Doctor, he does it, because it makes her happy and she stops hitting him and yelling at him and he likes being the hero in her fairytales.

He doesn't know if he believes her. It seems far too unreal to be true but the stories she spins are so convincing he almost feels as if the man had landed on _his _shed.

* * *

"Auntie's sending me to a psychiatrist."

"What?"

"She says I'm too old for stories."

"You're never too old for stories."

She stops walking abruptly and stares at him. Then she grins. "That's like something he would say."

With Amelia Pond, there is no better compliment.

* * *

She shows up at his door one day, sweaty and panting with her hair all frizzy and he can't help but think that she's beautiful. That is one of those comments his father would call _girly _and his mother would call _sensitive- _the only thing he cares about is that it's _true. _

"You're not supposed to be here," he tells her, and she rolls her eyes because, clearly, she knows that.

"I _know _that, Rory."

"So then... what are you doing here?"

She brushes past him into the house, opens his fridge and pours herself a glass of milk. She's so at home around him. Sometimes he forgets to breathe around her.

"I got kicked out. They called Aunt Sharon, so I had to run before she came. I'm going to get into trouble."

He takes an apple from the fruit bowl and chomps on it. "Why did you get kicked out?" He asks with his mouth full.

"I bit him."

He chokes. "You _what?"_

"I bit the doctor."

"Why?"

"He told me the Doctor wasn't real. _My _Doctor, I mean. And then he came really close to me and said, 'now Amelia, I know that you know he isn't real.' And I got angry and then I bit him."

Rory sputters uselessly at this information. "You... you bit him?"

She nods calmly. "So Aunt Sharon will be really mad at me, so I was wondering if I could hide here?"

He hesitates and bites his lip but it's all a front. They both know he'll let her stay, even if she did bite her therapist. And when Sharon knocks on his door and asks where her niece is, he sputters out that he has no idea. And even though Sharon storms through anyway, even though she grabs Amelia by the arm and tows her out of his house with a promise that she won't see the light of day for weeks, she still looks at Rory and gives him that Amelia Pond smile he so rarely sees and says, "thanks for trying Rory."

And that's enough.

* * *

Amelia Pond is the strongest person he knows.

But sometimes, she has moments. Moments of doubt, when she's certain she's going to be stuck in this little town for the rest of her life. Moments when she's certain he's not coming. On really bad days, she'll think maybe everyone else is right. Maybe he doesn't really exist. Maybe he's just a figment of her imagination. And as she gets older, those days become more frequent. The doubt begins to take over.

One of the things she'll learn to love the most about Rory is that he keeps her believing. He regurgitates all the arguments she ever used to prove the existence of the Raggedy Doctor, tries to prove to her the thing he himself isn't even really sure he believes in.

* * *

_Stupid Amelia Pond. She still believes in that imaginary friend of hers, d'you know that?_

They don't attempt to lower their voices and the words follow her, beat against her back, wear her down. Gradually, over time, her shoulders start to slump.

Rory Williams isn't a fighter. He doesn't like to draw attention to himself because, at this point in life, he could be the poster boy for the Awkward Puberty Stage. But while Rory Williams never sees the need in standing up for himself, he'll be damned if he sits there and watches Amelia Pond get picked on.

"Where's your flying box, Pond?"

"Hey Alex!"

Alex Santos' cold blue eyes turn to him and the confidence leaves him, because as much as he loves Amelia Pond he isn't a big fan of being punched.

"Shut up."

Like I said- Rory Williams isn't a fighter.

* * *

"I think I'm going to go by Amy now."

He looks up from the science book he had his head buried in, his eyes wide. "What?"

"Amy Pond. Has a nice ring doesn't it?"

"Not as nice as Amelia. Why would you want to change your name? Amelia Pond sounds so beautiful... like..."

"Like a name out of a fairy tale?"

"Yes!"

She nods and then snaps his book closed- she hated when he studied at lunch- and then takes a handful of his chips.

"Exactly."

* * *

He's pretty sure he's in the _friend's zone. _

He talks to Jeff about it, although he isn't sure why- Jeff likes to pretend he knows all there is to know about women, but he doesn't actually know a thing.

"Does she talk to you about her periods?"

"Uhm, sometimes? I mean not in vivid detail or anything but in passing, sometimes..."

Jeff nods solemnly. "Well then you're in the friend's zone. No girl talks about her time of the month with the bloke she wants to shag."

Rory considers this, heart sinking in dread. He leaves Jeff's house and when he gets home there's two messages from Amy on the machine.

_"Rory! Where are you? Call me back."_

_"Okay, really, there are about three places in this town you could be. You're not at my house and apparently you're not at home, so leave wherever else you are and come to one of the other two."_

He can't help the grin when he hears her voice and he calls her back immediately. Her voice seems to light up when she picks up the phone (but that might just be his imagination) and they talk about nothing for an hour.

What does Jeff know, anyway?

* * *

He asks her out shortly after her sixteenth birthday. They drive into the city and go see a movie. They window shop and he takes her out for dinner. They buy a tub of Pringles and she puts two in her mouth to make a duck's beak. He laughs harder than he should.

Two weeks after the first date, after he's made certain she isn't repulsed by him, he asks her out again, actually calling it a date this time. She agrees. This time she holds his hand as they walk and leans against him occasionally, and her body pressed against his makes his head spin.

When he finally brings her home she grabs his hand and tugs him to the nearest park. She jumps onto the swing and motions for him to do the same. The only problem is she grabbed the only adult swing- the other one is made for children, the diaper with the two leg holes.

"Amy, I'm not going to be able to fit in that."

She smiles at him, that Amy Pond smile that should be considered a weapon. "But then how will we swing together?"

It's the _together _that gets him.

He hops into the swing, his ass barely fitting, his legs flailing awkwardly over the edge. She giggles as he wiggles, and even though it's terribly uncomfortable, on the verge of painful, he can't help but grin at her.

"You look ridiculous."

"You're the one who wanted to swing together."

She holds out her hand and he takes it- her fingers fit into his and she kicks off the ground. She kicks off harder and harder but Rory, in his little diaper swing, keeps dragging her back.

"Let go of my hand and you can go higher," he tells her as her feet drag in the sand. Instead she grips him tighter.

"What use is swinging higher if I can't bring you with me?"

He is so surprised by this comment that he digs his feet into the ground and pulls her to a grinding stop. He grabs a hold of the rope on her swing, the one farthest from him, and yanks on it until they're facing each other.

"You're my best friend," he tells her definitively. She nods and looks at their hands. "But I want you to know that I am more than prepared to throw away our wonderful friendship in exchange for a tumultuous relationship that may or may not end badly."

She laughs and then stands up, grabs both chains attached to his swing and pushes him back, leans in close to his face. Her face is lit up and her eyes are bright and she's so beautiful. He wishes he could tell her what this moment means to him but he isn't sure how to put all these feelings into words.

"What if we break up then, hmm? How am I supposed to pass science without you?"

"Well, clearly the only solution is we should just never break up."

Her smile nearly blinds him. "You have all the answers, don't you?"

"You passed chem last year, right?"

Whether it's the promise of passing science or the thrill of throwing away a perfectly good friendship, she presses her lips to his.

Rory Williams does not know how to kiss. There was one time with Jennifer Pyke in eighth grade but he had braces and she cut her lip and it was a whole disaster. But Amy has kissed a few boys and she clearly knows what she's doing, and so he follows her lead and hopes that this wonderful, tumultuous relationship won't be stopped dead by his inadequacy at kissing.

She pulls away and he pulls her back in because he is _not done _kissing Amy Pond and has a feeling he probably won't ever be done kissing Amy Pond. She puts up with his greedy lips but finally puts her hands on his shoulders and pushes him back.

"I can't breathe Rory!" She giggles. He's heard Amy Pond giggle more today than he's ever heard before, and he can't help but marvel at the fact that she's giggling because of _him. _

"Sorry." He isn't really sorry at all. He's far too happy to be sorry. In fact he can't stop smiling. She seems to notice this as well because her hand comes up and traces over his lips. He reaches up and grabs it. This seems so, so easy, this whole transition thing. A few minutes ago she had been his best friend and he supposes she's still his best friend. But he could really get used to this whole _kissing _thing.

"So, are we going all in? Are we throwing away all of our friendship memorabilia?"

Her fingers find their way into his hair. "I was never that big of a fan of you anyway. I only befriended you out of necessity."

"Not much to lose then, is it?"

She kisses him again and his brain goes into overdrive, trying to identify all the different tastes on her lips. Her nails bite into his shoulders and it's such a wonderful feeling he can't help but smile against her lips.


End file.
